Thomas webster



T. WEBSTER.

kPPARATUS FOR BACKING ELECTHOTYPES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24. $915.

1 1 93,324. Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

a condition acceptable to the buyer.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS WEBSTER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

A'PPARATUS FOR BACKING ELECTBOTYPES.

Application filed June 24, 19l5. Serial No. 36,148.

To all whom it may concern,"

lle it known that I, Tiioims \Vsns'rnn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York, inthe borough of Brooklyn,

county of Kings,- and State'of New York,

have invented certain new and useful Iniprovenicnts in Apparatus for Backing Elec trotypes, of which the following is a speci' fication.

This invention relates to apparatus for backing electrotypes, and more particularly has for its objectto. provide an. improved 'liletllfld and apparatus for carrying out this solution was then applied, :i'lld tll] foil spread evenly over the bacl The pan-.was then placed on the melting potuntil the tin foil )ecame fused. The pan was then swung, over to the-backing up stand, and the liquid backing metal poured over the shell totlie required depth, whereupon the shell with its back was then ready for the cooling process. In order to facilitate the (aioling, instead of waitingfor the natural air currents to bring about this cooling, a fan or blast blower was provided, whereby the cooling could be couipleted by ll'ltllllS of the blower attachment in about fire minutes, whereas with the natural cooling it would take fron'i twenty-five minutes to a half hour. Thus, a great saving of time wasgaincd, that without this assistance could not be obtained. A further reason why a blower attachnicnt'was desirable over the natural method of cooling, wason account of its being quicker than the natural method, but in both methods the metal shrinks away from the pan, thus causing ir-.

regularities on the printing surface of the plate, which the finisher must necessarily correct before the plate can be delivered in However, tliis blast blower cooling did not accomplish all the advantages claimed for it, and my invention consists in providing a distinct improvement over the old blast blower Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 1,1916.

method of cooling, which consists in bringbacking on the shell and in the pan,'against a sheet of heat absorbing material, as felt saturated with water, maintained in commu nication with continuous supplies of water to make up the loss occasioned bythe evap oration when the hot panstrikes the wet felt..

Instead of bringing the pan to the felt, the equivalent step of bringing the felt to the pan may be used; The application of the saturated felt pad effects an even distribution of cooling material to the bottom of the pan containing the molten metal and the evaporation of the water intensifies the cool: ing operation and causes a sudden and even chilling of the surface of the backing in contact with the pan and an increased tendency of the metal to shrink towai'd't-he pan Whereface of the shell are' by irregularities in the avoided.

ing the pan with the shell therein, and the, i

To carryout my improved process most efficiently, it is;advantageous and essential that the pan itself be as smooth as possible, so that the face of the shell will not encounter any obstructions or unevenness in the 'pan. When the pan is smooth thro'u hirregularities in the shell itselfl'and cause f the printing surface of the shell to be even throughout, and thereby present'to the'paper to be printed an entirely even surface without any deepened portions or valleys therein, which causean uneven effect in the ultimate printing. The printing surface of the shell, thus having been smoothed out or q is a side view with parts in section of tie cooling 2\})P2ll,'21ili$, fil'l(l with the pun above it, Showing the shell backed by the bee-king; Fig. 2 is a similar view combined, however,

with the apparatus for moving the cooling device up toward the pan, and Fig. 3 is a similar view, showing, however, the movement of the pan toward the cooling appa Fig. 4 represents 'a vertical section,

ratus. of the apparatus, the absorbent pad being omitted and the cooling pan bcing n operativeposition holding the (ZVQPOIZIUYQ liquid out, the weight of the backing, press ng down against the shell, will smooth out any in contact with the bottom of the backing pan. 7

Similar reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the. several figures of the drawing. I

Referring to the drawing, and more particularly to Fig. 1, the backing'pan 10 has its upper smooth surface 11' polished ed in the well known manner. With the printing face downward and toward this surface 11, a shell 12 is placed, on. which shell 12' a layer of alloy backing 13 rests and serves to weight down the shell 12. This is well known and operates in the manner heretofore known; Below the pan 10, a second pan or basin 15 is provided, which has lateralflanfges' 16 of a height larger than the f height 0 the pan 10. These flanges 16 have an inlet water PW 17, and an outlet water flow 18, each sa. ,abl regulatedby valves 19 and 20. Within t e basin 15, a sheet of felt material 21 is preferably arranged, which is maintained in moist condition by the inlet and the outlet flow .of the water through the pipes 17 an'dlS. The quantity of water is such that the felt is thorou hly saturated with the water, but does not cm a layer of water above the surface of the sheet of felt, under normal conditions. When, however, the hot pan 10, with its shell 12 "and backing 13, is brought in contact with the sheet-of felt, the supply of water must be such as-to make up for the evaporation resulting from the hot surface of the pan 10 coming in contact with the moist sheet of 'felt.

Referring to Fig. 2, the pan 10 is shown as supportediby the arms 25 to suitable supporting members 26 and held in stationary positionth'ereby The basin 15 rests on arins 30 pivoted 'at 311, and having downwardly' projecting arms 32; To the -.free

ends of the arms 32, a rod 34 is pivoted at 33 and its" free end again is pivoted at 35 to a lever 36. This'lever is supported on a shaft 37 iii bearings 38 suitably secured to a table 39, and the shaft 37 is-keyed to a handle 40. The lever 36 has its other end pivoted to arod 41 which is like the rod 34, and this rod 41 is in turn pivoted to the elbow lever 42 at 43', which elbow-lever 42 is like the elbow-lever 32, and is pivoted to the stationary member 45 at 44, and has-its hookshaped end 47 engaging the lower end of th flange 16, in the same manner as the membe? 30 engages thefiange 16jat the other side. Thus 1t is clear-that by the operation of the handle 40, and the movement of the shaft 37 the lever 36 will be operated, and

th basin 15, with the felt therein, raised toward the-pan. To enable this raising, the pi as 17 and 18 are made flexible.

. instead of raising the basin 15 toward the panlO, as just described, it may be desir able to lower and raise the pan 10. For

this purpose, a similar mechanism is used as that just described in connection with Fig. 2, but instead of havin the elbow lever engage the lower end 0 the flange 15 of the basin, the arms 30 and 47 are connected with links 50and 51 to the pan 10. The pan 10, supported by the links 50 and 51, carries the shell 12 in contact with its smooth surface and the backing 13 surmounting said shell. Thus in the embodiment shown in Fig. 2, by the operation of the handle 40, the basin 15 with its felt pad) may be lifted toward the pan 10 until lts moist felt ad comes in contact with the bottom of sai pan to effect the coolin operation' and after such operation the asin 15 may be lowered by an opposite movement of said lever whereby the cooling pad is withdrawn from the pan whereas in the embodiment shown in Fig. 3 a movement of the lever 40 lowers the pan into contact with the felt cooling pad in the basin and lifts it out of contact therewith. In either case, the principle of my invention consists in bringing the electrotyping pan, with its shell and backing, against the absorbent material for the purpose of cooling the pan. The result of the coiiperation and interchangps of heat, is that the material forming t e backing 13 in the pan 10, shrinks toward the face 0 the cast as it cools, and in a very rapid. manner, and at the same time the rapid interchange of heat actions brings about a downward pull of the backing against the shell, and serves to weight down the shell and straighten it out against the polished surface 11 of the pan 10. The action is a very quick one in that the heat units of the pan are rapidly absorbed by the felt layer maintained undencont' ued moisture, and thereby the coolin o? the backing pans may be readily an quekly brought about with very advantageous and efficient results. This cooling is very much obtained, while at the same time the efliciency of the product is markedly increased.

Among the advanta es of water cooling are that the lates are 11 shrunk alike, and the face is rawn do n flat, doingraway with straightening in many cases, especially on type and half-tones, providin the back in pans are left smooth and cean. Anot er advantage is that the casts are cooled oil in forty seconds, doing away with a five horsepow lower, as is used at present in most esta. ments. 1

The pad may be omitted if desired as shown in Fig. 4. 'In that case the water or other evaporative 1i uid supplied th the cooling box comes bo ily into contact with the shell and backing metal to be cooled;

but I find it preferable in practice to bring probably due to the fact that the pad dis tributes the evaporative" liquid to the bottom of the backing pan through capillary action and permits the passage of air between the fibers of the pad and increases the evaporation of the liquid and thereby intensifies the eoolingetfect. The'latter is preferable, as stated. However, both ways work efficiently. v

I have described my invention, but I do not want to be limited to the spec'al way in which the mechanism is shown, as changes may be made therein without departing from thespirit of the invention, as described in the a pended claims.

Ilavi g thus described my invention, I claim a inew and desire tosecure by Letters Patent l. ,\'i apparatus of the character described comprising a backing pan for containing the backed electrotype, a cooling pan for containing a cooling material, and means for moving one of said pans toward and from the other to bring the bottom of thebacking pan into contact with and away from cooling material in the cooling pan.

2. An apparatus of the character described comprising a backing pan for containing the backed electrotype, a cooling ran means for sii lyin a coolin li uid a h h to said cooling pan, and means for moving one of said pans toward and from the other to bring the bottom of the backing pan into contact with and away from cooling material in the cooling pan.

3. An apparatus of the character de- .scribed comprising a backing pan for containing the backed eleetrotype, a liquid absorbent cooling pad, and means for effecting contact and separation between said pad aiid the bottom of said pan. 7

4. An apparatus of the character described comprising a backing pan for containing the backed clcctrotype, an absorbent pad of felt saturated with a cooling liquid, and means for cll'ecting contact and separation between said pad and the bottom of said pan.

apparatus of the character de-' taining the backed electrotype, an absorbent pad of felt saturated with a cooling liquid, means for etfecting contact and separation between said pad and the .bottom of said pan, and means for supplying a cooling liquid to the pad during said contact.

6. An apparatus ofv the character described comprising a backing pan for containing the backed electro'type, a cooling pan, an absorbent cooling pad disposed in said pan and containing a cooling liquid,

andmeans for moving one of said pans toward and from the other to bring the bottom of said backing pan into and out of; contact with said cooling pad.

7. An apparatus of the character described comprising a backing pan, means for suspending said pan, a cooling pan containing cooling material and disposed below said suspended backing pan, pivoted levers engaging said cooling pan, and anactuating mechanism for operating saidvlevers to raise and lower said cooling pan into contact with and away from the bottom of said backing pan.

8. An apparatus of the character described comprising a backing pan, means for suspendingsaid pan, a cooling pan containing cooling material and disposed below said suspended backing pan, pivoted levers'engaging said cooling pan, a rock shaft disposed between said engaging levers and provided with radial arms,liiiks connecting said arms with said engaging levers, and a handle lever for operating said rock shaft and 9 engaging levers to raise or lower said cooling pan into contact with or away from the bottom of said backing pan.

9. An apparatus of the character described comprising a backing pan for eonv taining the backed electrotype. a cooling pan, means for supplying a cooling liquid to said'cooling pan and for withdrawing said liquid from said pan, and means for moving one of said pans toward and from tllOOtllGl to bring the bottom of the backing pan into contact with and away from cooling material in the cooling pain.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention. I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS \VEBSTER. Witnesses I. GOEPEL, F. Hoco. 

